Literature Essay 2

Jordan Ackerman
04-18-09
Literature 223
Essay 2
Memorialization is something that has been a part of society for a very long time, even since before the times of Christ. Memorials have taken many forms over the centuries and have been used by just about every culture and people in existence. Many of these memorials have lasted for centuries, some purposefully hidden away and kept safe within tombs or under lock and key in museums and observatories and the like. Some memorials became memorials naturally, preserved by accident because of some natural disaster or because of man-made disasters such as war. Some memorials [tomb stones] are placed in the ground at the head of a grave to mark it and distinguish it from other graves nearby. Memorials have taken many other forms besides graves and tombs, though. As we discuss the importance and significance of memorials in the last hundred years and in today’s culture, we will see how memorialization has evolved over time to encompass multiple forms of media as well, immortalizing people and events in words, pictures, music and in motion pictures, multiple times in some cases.
In the twenty first century, the current generation of teens and twenty-somethings has been blessed with such a broad range of ever-changing technology to change the world and enough technology savvy to keep that change on its toes in an ever-evolving online virtual world. With this tech-savvy generation came the creation of the ever popular MySpace.com, an online networking site allowing users to customize their profiles to express themselves online. In this way, users create something of a self-memorial through the customization of their profiles. This is made more abundantly clear through the creation of MyDeathSpace.com, a site that displays the profiles of dead MySpace users and hosts a discussion forum on which users can discuss death and other related topics, as well as utilizing their ability on the site to leave their condolences and comments to pay their last respects to the deceased. Informal as it may be, it can be posted and almost immortalized for all to see on the internet, even if it doesn’t stay on that particular site for long. That’s the thing a about the internet, once it’s out there, it’s hard to take it back and erase it for good. It’s not necessarily set in stone, but words, once they are said, cannot be taken back, for better or for worse. That, perhaps, is what is meant by the old saying that “the pen is mightier than the sword”. If what can be read on a person’s profile is written with words, could the text of the profile, then, be considered literature?
By definition, literature is “writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays.” In other words, just about anything in print could potentially be considered literature, depending on the tastes of the critic who happens to be determining what they think literature is. Literature, it would seem, is in the eye of the beholder, to reuse the old saying. There is more than one way to define literature outside of something in print. In the same way, memorialization can vary in appearance, depending on what the person or persons deem appropriate for the person, persons or event being remembered. Soldiers, for instance, are remembered by the uniformity of the design and arrangement of their graves and that of their comrades. Sometimes, however, family and loved ones want to specialize and customize the design of the tomb stone to make it special to that particular person. This can lead to conflict, then, with the federal government over how to memorialize a veteran of that family and eventually become an issue of national identity as a result.
National identity plays a big role in an argument over how a military veteran should be recognized because they not only represent their family, but their country as well through their marshal duties to the nation they served. It can also be argued that since they took an oath to serve their country in uniform alongside their comrades, that they should be buried with honor in uniform alongside their comrades in the same fashion so as to identify them by their service to that country, much like we do here in America. On the other hand, however, the family raised and lived with that individual and genuinely loved them for years. It can also be argued that it would be a breach of constitutional rights for the government and or military to decide the design and layout of the family’s loved one who served as it leaves the family little choice as to how the body and grave are displayed and what goes on the epitaph. In that sense, it is still a matter of what’s right and what’s honorable, not just a matter of national identity.
But, what would happen, say, of there were no uniformity of graves and memorials to recognize and remember fallen servicemen for everyone in the country? It could be seen as a good thing for the families of said veterans because it would allow them to completely customize their loved one’s grave and tomb stone to specially cater to the kind of person that particular serviceman of woman was, to honor them with a unique memorial that defined who they were as a person. On the flipside, however, it would make it harder to identify which graves were those of soldiers and which were those of civilians. It would make them more individually unique, but it would be more difficult to find a universal representation of national identity among them. In some ways, this form of customized memorialization already exists, thriving on this freedom of creativity and imagination which can be blatantly seen on a plethora of MySpace profiles. Many newspapers, on the other hand, like the now discontinued Seattle Post Intelligencer represent a more uniform type of memorialization. Whatever the source, though, memorialization appears to be a very important part of society, now just as much as any other time in history.
Memorialization is ultimately one of the most integral parts of just about any society as it holds and preserves their histories in something, whether it be a statue, a tomb stone, a video clip, a song, or even a MySpace page. Today we can memorialize just about anything and anyone in more ways than you can shake a mouse cord at. It doesn’t really matter what approach you use or what you write in it, you’re recording a piece of history, a piece of literature, and a piece of you into it. You have to pour your heart and effort into it, make it your own, and write it in your own words to make it special, to customize and personalize it. This is so important a thing to remember about memorialization so that it does not lose its authenticity. If we remember that, making and honoring memorials will live on as a way of honoring and remembering the past and memorialization, itself, will have done its job well and not be counted as a lost cause. May it live on forever in our hearts and help us learn from our past, that we may push forward to a better future.